A Primitive Odyssey
by Warmill
Summary: A sequel to The Dawn of Man.


Moonwatcher stood on a ridge that overlooked the valley. He felt something he had never felt before. Strength. At the same time, there was something he didn't feel anymore. Hunger.

He held the bone in his hand that had made both feelings possible. His primitive mind now felt sharper. More keen to his surroundings. His new diet had contributed to those feelings.

After discovering that a bone could now be used as a means of protection, as well as, a means for survival, he used it with ruthless abandon! And it paid off with a bounty of meat! For him and his tribe. For he was now the leader. His other tribe mates now respected him. Out of fear. A fear of Moonwatcher. A fear of Moonwatcher's weapon. The bone.

Moonwatcher now "felt" different. He obviously hadn't developed a vocabulary to describe how he "felt different" but deep within his primitive and developing synapses was an inherent awareness that he had changed.

Changed after that encounter with the object. The black Monolith that had "appeared" several "days" ago, although there was obviously no understanding from Moonwatcher and his tribe of time. Only an awareness of a cycle of lightness and darkness.

After one cycle of darkness, as the lightness intensified, there was that sound. That high pitched sound that had penetrated into his tribe's very souls. If souls were what they could be correctly called.

However, as most of the primates screeched in fear and rolled in pain, Moonwatcher stood and watched. Fascinated. Curious. He felt his own "essence' being penetrated. Examined. Recorded. And some awareness entered his being. Drawing him to the Monolith. Closer and closer. Reaching out to touch it. To feel it. To somehow confirm that it was real!

But that was "days ago". A lot had happened since. The understanding of the purpose of the bones. The bones used to kill. To kill for food. To kill for protection. To kill for power.

Meanwhile, Stargazer, on the other side of the valley, gazed out upon the plains of what would be called, millions of years from then, the Serengeti plains of Africa. She also had a sense that something within her was different. For she also had had an "encounter" with a black Monolithic object, that had suddenly appeared within her tribe, a hundred miles away from Moonwatcher.

She was also more aware and "tied" into her surroundings. She had also learned of the bone. And had used it. Although she was, what one day would be labeled an Alpha-female, she did not take control of her tribe. The males prevented it. And she had no desire to confront them and kill them, although she could of easily done so had she "chosen" to.

Something within her made her realize how "pointless" it all was. The struggle for power, seeking out and confronting other tribes that were composed of creatures just like them, the only difference being that they were in another tribe!

So Stargazer went lone wolf. She left her tribe. She felt she would be better off on her own. So she wandered the plains. Bone in hand. She killed prey as they came along. She ate with abandon. Gathering more and more strength and agility and what would one day be called "intelligence".

But she had something else stirring within her. A "calling". A subtle "drive" to go back. Not to her tribe but to that place. That spot where "it" remained. The Monolith.

Stargazer didn't understand it all, although she had tried to in her primitive way. And she would never really understand. But it was there and it was potent. So she found herself being "drawn" back to that "magical" spot, where even the concept of "magic" was yet to exist for at least another million years or so.

Meanwhile, a hundred miles the other way, Moonwatcher began to feel that same drive. He found himself seeking out that strange object that had fascinated him so.

As he came over the incline, chasing off some of his other tribe mates with an intense growl and a wave of the bone, he spotted it once again. The Monolith.

Still solidly buried halfway down in the dirt, it stood silent. As it had since it last had uttered those high pitched sounds.

Moonwatcher slowly approached it. Although it had never poised any physical threat to him or any of his tribe, except for almost bursting their eardrums that one time, he still approached it with caution. Again, not by desire, but by instruction, and Moonwatcher didn't understand why.

He stood in front of it. Gazing into its majesty reflected in the sunlight. Although he couldn't describe it within his own thoughts, he was somehow aware of how that sunlight seemed to be drawn into its darkness.

Suddenly, it was back! The sound! That high pitched sound! The other apes screamed in fear and pain and scattered away! Moonwatcher stood transfixed.

This time he felt no pain. This time he felt no fear.

He just stood, staring hypnotically, into the Monolith's core. Suddenly, Moonwatcher saw movement within that core! Shapes he didn't understand! Patterns beyond comprehension! Except these patterns and shapes seemed to engulf him. Pull him into the darkness. He felt his essence dissolve. His very being becoming one with the Monolith!

Meanwhile, the other apes screeched out in fear, when they suddenly saw their "leader" disappear into the heart of the Monolith.

Moonwatcher awoke. He felt disoriented. Almost sick. Too confused right now to feel fear, he slowly glanced around. He found himself up on a hill. A desert surrounded him. Brush was all around. Caves in some of the rock walls. It was a familiar site to him. But deep down his essence "told" him that something was wrong. Something was different.

Moonwatcher sniffed the air. It was different. It wasn't hot, like he had always been used to. Wasn't cool, like when the darkness would return.

Moonwatcher also noticed the lack of scents. No smell of his tribe mates. No smell of other animals. No smell of other predators. Moonwatcher slowly crawled over to a bush. He touched it. Smelled it. Nothing. He broke off a twig and tasted it. Nothing! It didn't taste like a twig. Moonwatcher may have not been an expert on many things but he knew what a twig tasted like and this was not a twig!

As he turned his head and sniffed the air, he did pick up a scent more familiar to him. Someone or something was near. Suddenly, he heard a low growl from around a ridge. He instinctively raised the bone, he still had managed to hang onto. He moved cautiously around. Quickly coming to a stop when he saw her!

Stargazer stood with her bone held up in the air. She let out an intense growl that let Moonwatcher know to stay away.

Moonwatcher growled back but he had received and understood her message! He stepped back a few paces.

And so it went. As "time" passed. Moonwatcher kept his distance from her. Stargazer kept her distance from him. But they couldn't keep their distance very far. As they both soon discovered, their "desert" had "limitations". If they tried to wander too far, they would come up against a "resistance". There was something that just prevented them from physically leaving their surroundings.

After awhile, they feel into a comfortable arrangement. He slept in his cave. She slept in hers. There were still cycles of lightness and darkness but it didn't seem the same. There was an overall lightness that seemed to come from every direction overhead, instead of some mysterious "glob" of light that "rose" and "fell' every cycle.

And whenever the darkness faded into the "lightness of morning", Moonwatcher and Stargazer would "discover' an animal waiting for their consumption. They didn't need to hunt and use their bones, for the animal that would mysteriously appear was already dead. Freshly dead… but dead!

And it continued this way. Moonwatcher and Stargazer began to feel more and more comfortable with each other but still maintained their mutual distrust.

Then one day they both heard more noises. Not like the high pitched screeches of a Monolith but more like short, quick pulses, that would sound high and then low. Even though those concepts meant nothing to Moonwatcher and Stargazer.

But again they both began to "feel different". To change within. So after awhile, their mutual discomfort with each other began to decrease just as their mutual comfort with each other began to increase. Soon, Moonwatcher slept in the same cave as Stargazer. They soon formed a bond.

And they were watched and discussed by the essence that had brought them there. The same essence that had planted the Monoliths back on their primitive planet. The essence that changed them forever and brought them here, set them up in a simulation of their environment. Provided them with artificial meat every day for their very survival. The essence that provided them with a semblance of intelligence. Now, the essence waited.

Would Moonwatcher and Stargazer mate? Would their offspring have their induced intelligence. Would their next generations be even more intelligent? How would this experiment turn out?

For the essence needed to know before it could proceed. For in one or two or three million years, they would go back to Moonwatcher and Stargazer's primitive planet and plant another series of Monoliths on that primitive planet's moon.

Then, as a result, they could "invite" the descendents of those like Moonwatcher and Stargazer back through the Monolith to see how this great cosmic experiment had progressed! If it had even progressed at all!


End file.
